Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1887-06-15
VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.
A Prosperous British Colony Whose Proper
Name is Tasmania.

A Prosperous British Colony Whose Proper
Name is Tasmania.
Considerable astonishment may pos
sibly be excited in the minds of English
speaking school-boys and schoolgirls
all over the world, by the announce
ment that Sir Robert Hamilton has
been appointed to the lucrative govern
ment of cyan Diemen's Land" The
general ion both at home and at the an
tipodes may ask their instructors whore
Van Diemen's Land is, and their teach
ers may smilingly reply there is no such
colony pertaining to the British crown
as Van Diemen's Land, and that there
never has been. 1t is true that the
beautiful island which is the sanatoriUm
of Australasia, and which stands to the
Australian continent geographically in
the same relation of the Isle of Wight
20 Great Britain, was, until the year
1871, known as Van Diemen's Land,
although it never had the slightest right
TO be called by that name. Its present
title should have been, as matter of
simple justice, its original one-Tas-
mania. The island was discovered on
the oath of November, 1912, by Captain
Abel Jams Tasman, an enterprising and
expert Dutch navigator, who had been
commissioned by Anthony Van Diemen,
Governor General of the Batavian East
Indies, to explore the "Great South
Land" In an excess Of politeness to-
ward his Excellency at Batavia, Tasman
named the country which he had dis
covered Van Diemen's Land, and it is
worthy of remark that during the same
voyage he discovered the group of
islands now known as New Zealand.
Obviously, it was inexpedient to repeat
the compliment which he had already
paid to Governor Van Diemen, so he
named the islands which he had been the
first European TO sight, Staten, or
Staaten's Land, in honor of the
States General of Holland-a
designation which he afterward altered
to Nova Zealanda. When Captain
Cook visited the islands in 1859 he was
content with Anglicisipg Tasman's APP
pellation into New Zealand. The in
structors of British youth, however,
both in the mother country and in the
colonies, might further enlighten them
as to why that which was formerly Van
Diemen's land was, by the local act
18th Victoria, recognized as the colony
Of Tasmania. For long years past the
name of Van Diemen's Land had
rocked with the most detestable of
odors in the nostrils of the free colon
lists. 1t recalled the horrible memories
Of the old days of convictism-ho horrors
which have been so powerfully y recorded
in the late Marcus Clarke's romance,
''For the Term of His Natural Life "
Van Diemen's S Land, since the abolition
Of transportation, has become a coun-
try populated by an exceptionally inno-
cent community Port Arthur, once
the scene of so many diabolical cruel
ties, is now a pleasure resort for holi-
day-makers; and it is only in a couple
of asylums for aged and destitute per-
sons and for lunatics, near Hobart,
that the last lingering remnants can be
seen of the convict population of the
past. Naturally, the free people of
this beautiful colony, endowed with
thoroughly constitutional Government,
and anxious to come to the front as
loyal subjects of the Queen, were de-
sirous that the black pages of their
early history should be as far as possi-
BILE obliterated; and by universal con-
sensus the name of Van Diemen's Land
was consigned both to official and So
cial oblivion. At the present day in
Australia it is as much breach of
good manners to talk of Van Diemens
Land as it is at Sydney to speak of
Botany Bay. There is such sheet of
water truly on the map, but the pleas
ant watering-place where Mr.. Joseph
Banks and DR.. Solander discovered SO
many pretty little plants is known in
New South Wales society as Botany"
The dictum of Shakespeare to the con-
trary Notwithstanding, there is some
thing in a name. Botany is quite inno-
cent; but Botany Bay recalls the ugliest
memories of ''crossing the herring
pond" in connection with sentences
passed on felons at the Old Bailey and
other oourts of assize.-Londoaa Tele-
graph.